North Kingstown girls spike La Salle in five. Here's why it matters.

NORTH KINGSTOWN – Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been” blared from the gymnasium speakers and members of the North Kingstown girls volleyball team started dancing as they waited for a fifth set to start.

The Skippers had just dropped their first two sets of the season, but if they were feeling any pressure it certainly didn’t show.

North Kingstown looked unbeatable heading into Monday’s match before La Salle proved otherwise. After dropping the third and fourth sets, the Skippers regrouped, danced a bit, then went out and performed, closing out a 25-15, 25-18, 23-25, 19-25, 15-6 win over the Rams that might have been the worst thing that could have happened to anyone else’s championship hopes.

“We really needed this,” NK setter Tayla Schneider said. “… We kind of let our foot off the gas a little and started making mistakes in that third set. In the fifth, we came out hot and we were ready for it.”

“For us it was a really good time to lose,” NK All-Stater Kayleigh Garrepy said. “Losing early in the season, it’s a good test to what we’re doing here. It motivated us to work harder and do the little things right.

“It was important at some point to lose a couple of sets and come back from it and I think we did that well [Monday].”

Until Monday, calling this season a breeze for North Kingstown would be like describing this weekend’s weather as a passing shower. The Skippers swept their first eight matches of the season, with Coventry being the only team to score at least 20 points in a set.

The match against La Salle – which was swept by NK on September 10, 25-19, 25-14, 25-14 – started off the same. The Rams are talented, with All-Stater Adrian Brzoza, budding superstar Courtney Sims and a maestro of a setter in Kiki Reid, but for two sets they looked afraid of their opponent. Mistakes piled on, North Kingstown ran like the well-oiled machine it is, and the third set seemed unnecessary.

La Salle had other plans. After playing on its heels for two sets, the Rams passed better and, in turn, allowed its hitters to do damage. La Salle had an 18-11 lead it nearly gave away, but when Garrepy’s third go at the tying point flew long, a fourth set became necessary.

There, the Rams continued to play well while the Skippers looked lost. NK hung around, but La Salle didn’t let drama even attempt to creep into the set and had all the momentum in the world going to five.

And, shortly after the impromptu NK dance party, it was gone.

The Skippers led 6-3 when Garrepy stepped up to the service line and she delivered the way she was supposed to. Garrepy ripped off four aces in a seven-point stretch, with her serve ending up 13-4. La Salle tried to muster up a comeback, but a roof block by Marin Finnan gave them set point. Up 14-7, Isla Arnold received serve and put it on target to Schneider, who went back to Arnold for the match-clinching kill.

“Our mood changed after we lost the fourth set,” Garrepy said. “We came into that fifth set like ‘OK, this is it; we either go home with a loss or we go out and play harder.’

“That was a good mindset to have because we didn’t want to lose.”

Some will argue there’s no place for moral victories, but those people are wrong.

Getting swept would have been devastating for the Rams. It would have given credence to the idea that North Kingstown was simply operating at an otherworldly level and was, in fact, impossible to beat.

Forget how the fifth set ended. La Salle ran out of gas and it shouldn’t have been a surprise after the impressive comeback in the third and fourth. The fact it got that far is big deal for confidence and while they took an L, the Rams left ready for a rematch.

“We do feel pretty good coming in here knowing they hadn’t lost a set yet,” Brzoza said. “We’ve been working hard, obviously they’re a great team, but this is our No. 1 team to beat.”

The loss was La Salle’s third of the season and second to NK, with the other coming against out-of-state Bishop Feehan. The Rams know their ability and while confidence was shook after their previous matchup with the Skippers, getting it back on Monday was huge for the second half of the season.

La Salle will try to carry momentum into its next match on Wednesday when it travels to play Chariho, as it keeps trying to build to make its first state final since 2019.

“When we work together, we’re unbeatable and that’s why we did amazing in the third and fourth set,” Brzoza said. “We lost the fifth, but we’ll be back.

“It’s a good feeling knowing we can beat them. We know now we can do it.”

Up until Monday, the most competition the Skippers had seen this fall happened in their own gymnasium at practice. That work is important, but being pushed by an actual opponent is a quick reminder that even if you look unbeatable, one bad night can change everything.

“We needed the push to be better,” Schneider said. “It can get boring and you just need it.”

The most impressive part of North’s win was its composure. The Skippers fought hard in the third set and nearly pulled off the sweep with an epic comeback. As the world was crumbling around them in the fourth, there wasn’t a singular moment where they stopped to think about losing. The fifth was a champion finding that extra gear.

And the best part? Coach Brian Garrepy didn’t even think about calling a timeout. You want your players to perform well in tough moments? Then let them figure it out for themselves.

“Coach Garrepy, he’s amazing. He can pull us all together,” Schneider said. “We know there’s no pressure here and we can have fun playing the best volleyball we can.

“I like [not calling a timeout]. He knows we can rely on each other.”

North Kingstown improves to 9-0 in Division I and will be back on the court Friday night, taking the trip out to the East Bay to play Barrington.

Preparations won’t be any different leading into the match. The week of practice doesn’t get tougher because the Skippers dropped a set.

Nothing’s broken, so nothing needs to be fixed – just slightly adjusted.

“Same process – we’re pushing every day as hard as we can,” Schneider said. “It’s us vs. us in the practice gym and that’s what makes us better out here.”

“It’s a really good learning lesson. Losing [sets on Monday] helps us in our motivation to continue to work hard and we’re getting better every day which we’re doing already at practice,” Kayleigh Garrepy said. “It’s a great learning lesson and we’re definitely excited to keep pushing forward and hopefully get to that state championship.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: North Kingstown girls spike La Salle in five. Here’s why it matters.